Two orbiters and a comet are all poised to add to the traffic in the skies of Mars

The full-length version of AW&ST's August 2014 interview with Iridium CEO Matthew Desch and Aireon President and CEO Donald Thoma is below, with web-only excerpts highlighted in green.

The Moon is the next world for humanity to explore and turn into a new home—even as we push out into the deeper ocean of space. -Forty-five years ago, a few of us wandered her surface, yet we turned away, not realizing the importance of what we had done—or what could be done. Now it is clearly time to return and, by learning how to live there, to prepare ourselves to plant the seeds of humanity on the red sands of Mars.

Push comes to pull in NASA space tech

SLS cleared for full development, but risk assessment may push first launch back to late 2018

In September 1999, the National Reconnaissance Office dumped its incumbent imagery satellite contractor, Lockheed Martin, in favor of a bolder and less costly proposal led by Boeing.

"Imagine we land humans on Mars and we have five to 10 robots we can send out to areas of interest for our researchers to look at," said Randy Bresnik, NEEMO 19's commander.